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shown here support a small gable roof that shelters an exterior door on my shop. Make templates first The siding I used on my house and shop is reclaimed beetle-kill pine that’s milled and prefinished by Teton West, a lumber company in Wyoming, so I bought 4x6 beam stock for the brackets and exterior trim from them, too. The only thing I had to do is rip the stock down to the right size. I used a 1-in.-wide carbide blade on my bandsaw to make perfectly straight cuts. With my contractor, Scott Wells, I started the job by making a fullscale drawing of the brackets on 1⁄4-in. hardboard. We then cut out templates for each of the three components: brace, post, and beam. Cutting the parts With the stock milled, the next step was to cut the miters for the braces on the miter saw, then to nip off the long point of each miter so that it would be square and perpendicular to the post and beams. We cut the chamfers on the tablesaw with a stop attached to the miter fence. Next, we used a tablesaw with a dado blade to cut the notches in both ends of each brace. For repetitive work, there’s nothing better than making jigs out of your miter-gauge fences. We used the template to dial in the jig and the depth of the dado cut. We also made a template with two stops, one for the beams and one for the posts, to plunge-rout the dadoes that receive the braces. We used the bandsaw to cut the pillowed steps in the legs. The time invested in making templates, jigs, and stops really paid off. We were able to cut all the pieces and assemble 20 brackets in no time and didn’t make any mistakes. The joinery needed only a slight amount of trimming for minor discrepancies in material thickness. To make the installation easier for the structural brackets that would support the small gable roofs, we added steel braces to the tops of the arms. Covered by the roof, the brackets didn’t need additional flashing. Beam ends that project past the roof are chamfered to drain water. □ Contributing editor Gary M. Katz is the driving force behind the Katz Roadshow and THISisCarpentry.com. Photos by the author. 1 STEP BY STEP ASSEMBLE THE BRACKETS IN PLACE 1 After tacking a block to the wall as a rest, mount the post plumb on the wall, securing it with a 1⁄2-in. by 6-in. lag screw countersunk in the mortise and driven into 4x4 blocking installed in the walls at the framing stage. 2 Fasten the brace into mortises with 4-1⁄2-in. construction screws. 3 Attach the beam to the post with a 1⁄2-in. by 12-in. lag screw, counter sunk into the mortise meant for a steel brace. 4 Screw the brace to the wall and to the top of the bracket. 82 FINE HOMEBUILDING 2 PUT THE BRACKETS TO WORK The brackets were bolted to the exterior wall, where they support a small entry roof. The roof timbers are Douglas fir, stained to match the factory-stained bracket stock. A smart flashing detail allows the eventual replacement of the roof shingles without disturbing the siding. Half-lap joint Ends of collar tie are cut at 18.43° (4-in-12 roof pitch). 3⁄4-in. chamfer 41⁄2-in. construction screws King stud, 161⁄4 in. by 31⁄2 in. sq.